Drafthouse Films Acquires Abel Ferrara’s 1981 Cult Thriller ‘Ms. 45’

Drafthouse Films reached back into the vaults to snap up rights to the 1981 revenge thriller Ms. 45, the second film directed by Abel Ferrara after his 1979 horror pic The Driller Killer. The rape and revenge flick follows a mute garment district seamstress (Zoë Lund) who suffers a string of sexual assaults that transform her into a one-woman homicidal angel of vengeance targeting the city’s male population. Ms. 45 bombed upon initial release but subsequently built a cult following, and the vision of Lund packing a pistol in a nun’s habit in the film’s bloody Halloween night scene became an iconic moment in exploitation cinema. (Lund later co-scripted the career-defining Bad Lieutenant for Ferrara.) Drafthouse Films will release Ms. 45 to theaters in a new HD remastering in December accompanied by an uncut DVD and Blu-ray release for the first time in North America. UK specialty label Death Waltz Records will also release the Ms. 45 soundtrack for the first time ever. Drafthouse’s Evan Husney and James Emanuel Shapiro negotiated the deal with David Kravis of Coastline Licensing International, Inc.